Infants, toddlers, and children while riding in moving vehicles, such as cars and trucks, are required by law to ride in child safety seats, which might also be known as car seats or booster seats. An example of a child safety seat is provided by the disclosure of Tanaka et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,664 (November 1977), which is incorporated herein by reference. The child safety seats are generally attached to the rear seat of the vehicle and may be positioned and held on a vehicle's seat by, for example, passing the normal lap safety belt about the child safety seat and, in effect, buckling the child safety seat in place on the rear seat just as a passenger would buckle himself into the vehicle seat. The child safety seat may be anchored to the rear seat of the vehicle facing forward or rearward, depending on the age, size of the child, and the local laws of the jurisdiction where the vehicle is used.
vehicle is used.
The child safety seat may elevate the child from the seating surface of the rear seat. The elevated position of the child in the child safety seat may reduce the clearance between the child's head and the interior roof of the vehicle. This reduced clearance between the head of the child and the roof interior of the vehicle may increase the probability of striking or bumping the child's head against the door frame of the vehicle, the roof of the vehicle, or the rear passenger roof handle of the vehicle while removing or placing the child in the child safety seat.
Moreover, some maneuvering may inevitably be required to place the child in the child safety seat or remove the child from the child safety seat. This maneuvering may result in the child's head striking the door frame, the roof of the vehicle, or the rear passenger roof handle of the vehicle. These bumps are especially difficult to avoid if the child squirms during the process of placing them in or removing them from the child safety seat. These bumps are disconcerting for the parents, and may be distressing and injurious to the child. A sleeping child whose head is bumped may awaken, or an unruly child may become even more unruly after her head is bumped in this manner. Accordingly, there is a need for a device that protects the head of a child from bumps against the roof and rear doorframe of a vehicle as the child is placed in a child safety seat or removed from it.
The use of passive restraint protective barriers, such as air bags or air curtains, for protecting children riding in the rear seat of a vehicle have previously been disclosed and have also been implemented into numerous vehicles. Generally, air bag or air curtain systems are stored in deflated condition in storage areas within the vehicle. These air bag or air curtain systems may also include sensors located at various points in the vehicle, which may trigger, inflate, and then deploy the air bag or air curtain upon impact. These air bags or air curtains are not suitable for preventing the head of a child from bumping against a rigid roof or door frame of a vehicle because these passive restraint systems are only deployed during an accident. At all other times these air bag and air curtain systems are stored in folded and deflated condition. The air bags or air curtains require a triggering mechanism to deploy as a protective barrier during emergencies and are expensive and non-reusable, so they are unavailable when the child is being placed in or removed from the child safety seat in the regular course of vehicular use. Moreover, rather than protect the head of the child, these air bag or air curtain are notorious for causing injury due to the force with which they inflate and deploy.
Devices for protecting children located in child safety seats have been disclosed in various other U.S. patents. These devices, however, do not disclose an apparatus for protecting the head of a child from bumps against the roof and rear doorframe of a vehicle as the child is placed in the child safety seat or removed from it. For example, McDonald et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,208 (May 1986), discloses a child car seat having an integrated safety shield placed over the front portion of the seat. The device disclosed in McDonald '208 does not protect the head of a child from bumps against the roof and rear doorframe of a car as the child is placed in the child safety seat or removed from it. Rather, the device disclosed in McDonald '208 utilizes an energy-absorbing device that is attached to the child car seat for protecting the child when the vehicle is brought to a sudden stop or is involved in a collision. Moreover, McDonald '208 device requires a special design child car seat formed to receive the safety shield. The safety shield disclosed by McDonald '208 requires the safety shield and the child car seat to have reciprocating parts, thereby requiring the consumer to buy a particular seat should the consumer also desire the safety shield.
Price et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,292 (July 1994), discloses a portable cushion for a child car seat which maintains the child in an upright position and protects the child in case of injury, but fails to disclose a device for preventing the head of a child from bumping against the roof and rear doorframe of a vehicle. Rather, the positioning of the cushion in Price '292 increases the difficulty of placing or removing the child from a child safety seat. Instead, the maneuvering required when using the Price '292 device increases the probability that the child's head will strike the doorframe, the roof of the vehicle, or the rear passenger roof handle of the vehicle while placing or removing the child from a child safety seat.
Kincheloe, U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,135 (February 1985) discloses an infant car seat having a structure that folds upward to cushion the impact in the event of a crash. Kincheloe '135,however, fails to disclose a device for preventing the head of a child from bumping against the roof and rear doorframe of a vehicle when the vehicle door is open, and increases the difficulty of placing the child in or removing the child from a child safety seat. The maneuvering required in using the Kincheloe '135 device increases the probability that the child's head will strike the door frame, the roof of the vehicle, or the rear passenger roof handle of the vehicle while placing the child in or removing the child from a child safety seat.
Raffini, U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,162 (September 1996) discloses a child car seat protection device which forms a frame placed over a child car seat and includes a padded bar positioned in front of the child for protection during an accident and Goor et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,047 (November 1995), discloses a child safety seat with integrated support bars designed to help prevent intrusion of an air bag into the child when the child car seat is placed in a rearward direction. Neither Raffini '162 nor Goor '047 discloses a device removably connected to a vehicle for preventing the head of a child from bumping against the roof and rear doorframe of a vehicle. Instead, the Raffini '162 and Goor '047 devices increase the difficulty of placing or removing a child into and from a child safety seat. Both of these devices disclose attachments and/or extensions to the car seat that increase the difficulty of placing or removing the child into and from a child safety seat. In fact, the additional maneuvering required to use either the Raffini '162 device or the Goor '047 device increases the probability that the child's head will strike the doorframe, the roof of the vehicle, or the rear passenger roof handle of the vehicle while placing or removing the child from a child safety seat.
Thus, the prior art lacks a device that is capable of being removably attached to a vehicle so as to cushion the impact of the head of a child with a vehicle door frame or roof as the child is placed into or removed from a child safety seat in the vehicle. Various embodiments of the present invention, but not necessarily all, address this need and provide a device for protecting the head of a child from bumping against the roof and/or door frame of a vehicle as the child is placed in the vehicle or removed from it. The present invention discloses the use of a removable cushioning device that is attached to the vehicle so that the vehicle door frame is shielded when the vehicle door is open and a child is entering the vehicle.